


Mother

by ProstheticLoVe



Category: Veep (TV)
Genre: 7x01, Bullying, Common Sense, Decisions, Discussion of Abortion, F/M, Fix it Challenge, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Spoilers, rewrite of hotel scene, season 7
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-25
Updated: 2019-05-25
Packaged: 2020-03-17 10:51:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18963781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProstheticLoVe/pseuds/ProstheticLoVe
Summary: Instead of calling Sophie, Amy calls her mother for advice. Common sense is knocked back into Dan.





	Mother

**Author's Note:**

> Author’s Note: This is my Fix-It. I don’t have a problem with them doing the abortion. I had an issue with the execution, so I want to redo it so I’m happy with it. If you guys are happy with it, then that’s a bonus as well! This story starts in the hotel in 7X01. 
> 
> I decided to do the Fix It Challenge because I'm still a bit upset about S7. I know that it's been a few weeks, but I had to do it. I picked the The Hotel Scene/Abortion situation because that's what this morphed into. It looked a lot different and I had too many ideas and this is what I ended up with. I'm pretty happy with it.
> 
> I hope you guys like the one shot. If you do, then please leave a review!

_“For when a child is born the mother also is born again.” - Gilbert Parker_

Amy Brookheimer’s fingers hovered over her iPhone not knowing how to proceed, which was a strange feeling since she tended to always know how to handle situations that were thrown her way. It had been a long week - Selina was trying to figure out when she was going to announce her run for President, and Dan told her off about not getting an abortion while they also had to deal with stupid interns who fucked up the names of the airports - so she was feeling pretty spent.

In fact, she was feeling so tired that she had even considered calling her sister for some advice on her current situation i.e. being pregnant with Dan Egan’s demon spawn.

Actually, she had gotten two rings into the phone call before hanging up because common sense finally filtered through her brain again. Her common sense seemed to be coming and going these days. Sometimes, she knew that keeping the baby was common sense deciding to go to Bora-Bora and leave her in the lurch and other times she knew that it had decided to stick around to give her hints about dangerous situations such as when she felt herself getting grossed out by Dan checking out other women right in front of her.

Note to self: Another reason she knew Dan was obviously not ever going to change was when he flirted with a woman right in front of her.

When Sophie called her back, she had been pulled into a meeting by Kent about Keith Quinn, so she hadn’t even picked up, which, of course, resulted in a nasty voicemail reminding Amy exactly why she never came to her for help.

However, because she did need to talk to someone who wasn’t going to judge her too harshly about her current predicament she decided to call her mother. Even though her mother liked Dan for inexplicable reasons, Amy needed someone who she trusted and who loved her to discuss this with and no one in her life fit the bill besides her parents...which was a very sad thought.

Although, since she had made that decision, it was proving difficult to follow through on.

For obvious reasons.

The one at the forefront of her mind was what if she had guessed wrong and her mother did judge her for getting pregnant out of wedlock and by a certified sociopath (although, her mother never saw Dan as displaying any lack of empathy for human kind) or maybe her mother would be much too soothing and Amy would have a complete breakdown, like she had when she first found out.

She had always prided herself on having the upper hand in any situation. She was always on top of what was going on in her life - Nevada not included - and now she found herself at a crossroads and she just sorta needed her mother’s advice.

She didn’t really want to talk to her mother about her situation, but she didn’t see what other choice she had.

In the past, she probably would’ve gone to Selina first, but Selina was just...not an option and hadn’t been since she had come back to work for her.

So now she was doing something she hadn’t really done since she was 17 and getting ready to head off to university; she was going to talk to her mother about her life. What had triggered this desire to speak to her mother was she had listened to a podcast about abortion on her way back to meet the team and Selina after the disastrous airport mixup.

The podcast hadn’t been earth shattering by any means, it was an easy way to pass the time, but when the mother of the 16 And Pregnant TV show cast off had talked about how close the experience had made them, it got Amy thinking.

Why hadn’t she thought of calling her mother first and foremost?

It wasn’t like she had any best friends to call.

It showed very clearly that her first choice of someone to tell about her current predicament was Dan, who at one point was her so-called best friend. But now, she was pretty much on her own, except for her parents or at least she hoped that was the case.

Her first instinct on finding out she was pregnant thanks to the shitstain known as Dan had been to cry because that’s just what you do when you’re pregnant with a garbage person’s baby.

But the next thing she did was to start looking into information about her options. Of course, this was after she called up her OBGYN to make an appointment.

The fucking nurse gave her an ear full about having gone almost two years without a checkup, but that was beside the point.

She had to make sure that the test wasn’t defective.

However, after the chippier-than-a-crackhead-after-an-espresso the OBGYN told her that she was indeed going to be a mother, Amy knew she had to tell Dan. Having a kid had been in the back of her mind since she had decided to freeze her eggs way back - probably two years ago when she last saw the OBGYN.

In recent years, she had found herself wanting to settle down, but the problem had always been on who she wanted to be with.

Ed, Buddy, and the few other guys in between had never really done anything for her.

Dan was a different story; he was a different fucking genre all together.

The thing was that she wanted this baby.

She wouldn’t have told Dan if that wasn’t the case. If she hadn’t wanted the kid, then the first thing she would’ve done was call up the nearest abortion clinic and be halfway there before the urine could even dry on the pregnancy stick.

She knew that when she told Dan his reaction would be bad, but she hadn’t expected him to not even want to have a discussion about it.

In the many sleepless nights she had spent worrying about the outcome of telling Dan, she figured he’d throw a fit and maybe have another nervous breakdown, but eventually, they’d finally talk about what they wanted to do.

That was the adult thing to do, even though both of them hated talking about feelings and shit.

The thing was that once upon a time she had gone to Dan for everything. For every little thing that had happened in her life she had told him about, so maybe it was a combination of wanting his help and just...needing someone who she trusted to figure this out with. She had hoped Dan would be who he always was - someone she could rely on who would talk her down to a place that resembled sanity; someone who she knew.

She figured the feelings and shit conversation would be rough, but they would do it together because they were a team, but the hormones must’ve done something to her brain because after spending the last three months trying to talk to him and him avoiding any conversation that even touched on parenting or kids, she realized she had been fucking delusional to think Dan would ever step up.

Where had the guy who she lobbied with gone?

Where was the Dan Egan who had called her Superwoman when they were getting ready to campaign for Selina the last time?

What had happened to Dan who opened doors for her and needled her until she gave him her attention?

This Dan - he wasn’t even Dan, but Danny-First-Class-Piece-Of-Shit-And-Lothario-Egan - wasn’t who she thought he was.

She didn’t know him anymore. He had become exactly the man she always knew he would become if he ever went off the rails and just dropped everything he even gave an iota of human emotions about.

After the comment at the airport mixup - after trying to straighten everything out with the people who had showed up - she realized that she was on her own. She actually wanted to be a mother, but she wasn’t sure how that would play into, well, her entire life. How did you raise another human being?

And more importantly, how did you do it without someone else?

Amy never thought she was going to get a lot of help from Dan once she told him, but she thought they would at least talk about it and since Dan wasn’t willing to talk to her, she was seriously considering just...doing it herself.

The problem was that she wasn’t sure that she could do it herself. But her sister was able to raise her kids alone, albeit with help from her parents, so if she could do it, Amy didn’t know why she couldn’t handle raising a kid without any assistance from Dan-Wham-Bam-Goodbye-Ma’am-Egan.

After she thought about it, she knew talking to her sister would prove to be fruitless.

No time in their entire relationship had Amy come to rely on her sister.

Not since Amy used to get made fun of on the playground for her ears sticking out and her sister laughing along with the rest of the kids nor all the way into their adult lives when Sophie took every opportunity to insert some unnecessary cluserfuck into her life.

Dan was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to how fucked up their relationship was.

Their relationship had never been great, but sometimes because they were sisters Amy got it into her head that Sophie could give her older-sisterly advice. But then she remembered who she was dealing with.

She blamed those thoughts on watching too many 90s and Disney movies in her youth.

It didn’t help anything that Amy didn’t even have time to figure out her next steps when Selina was getting ready to announce the presidency any day now. More importantly, Dan didn’t seem to want to talk to her about any of it.

While he wasn’t necessarily avoiding her, every time she had tried to tell him that she wanted to talk, he acted like he had no idea what there was to talk about.

And maybe he didn’t think there was anything to talk about.

After the airport conversation, she realized that maybe he didn’t actually think she was going to have the baby. It wasn’t until they had gotten to the hotel in Lurlene - fucking honestly, what kind of hillbilly name is that? - that she had time to actually think about something that wasn’t campaign related.

The last few months since starting pre-pre-campaigning had been a whirlwind and Amy had barely had time to think about anything else, which is probably why she had word vomited all over Dan the minute they were alone. She couldn’t help it. He was just going on about their adjoining rooms and the words just fell out...

But once she had told Dan that she actually wanted to keep the baby, well, Amy knew that she really needed to talk to her mother and she couldn’t put it off any longer. The problem was that even in her mid-30s she wasn’t sure how to broach the topic that she was pregnant and not married.

And there was no man to speak of in the picture because that’s the image she was beginning to come to with Dan.

Even though he always referred to them as a team, she knew that Daddy Dan Egan was not going to make an appearance and instead, she’d be stuck with Deadbeat Egocentric Danny Egan.

She wasn’t delusional enough to think that just because she was pregnant he would want to settle down and stop banging the hordes of women that seemed to gracelessly fall onto his dick.

But she had hoped...maybe...she blamed her common sense leaving her again.

Biting her lip, she drew in a breath, and pressed ‘Mom’ in her phone.

With bated breath, she waited until she heard--

“Amy? Honey? What’s wrong?”

Amy sighed and and began to pace the length of her room.

She hoped the walls were thick enough for Dan not to hear her conversation.

Neither the less, she kept her tone very low because she had already been embarrassed enough by her emotions today.

She didn’t need Dan to hear her having this discussion and using it against her, just like she knew that he would use her word vomit at the most opportune time to embarrass her. Not that she needed much these days with how Selina was treating her.

“I just...I wanted to talk to you.” she said moving her hand to her mouth to begin biting her nails until she realized what she was doing.

Shaking her hand out, she scowled at her reflection in the hotel mirror, and made a fist hard enough to leave crescent marks in her palm.

“What’s wrong?” her mother asked concern infiltrating her voice.

Amy sighed, “it’s just...are you sitting down?”

“Amy, what’s wrong?”

“I just...is dad there too?”

“No, sweetheart, he’s at poker night. You sound strange. Just tell me what’s going on.”

Amy was silent for what felt like a long time as she gathered her courage to tell her mother about her current situation.

“I’m...I’m pregnant.” she muttered finally.

She had envisioned this moment a lot in the three months that she had known she was pregnant. She had thought her mother would make loud noises about the whole thing. She’d envisioned her being silent. She had even thought she might hang up or yell at her.

But nothing had prepared her for what happened next.

“Oh, honey. Do you want to Facetime?” Amy blinked and moved the phone away from her ear.

She stared at it for a second before she pressed the video button to transfer the call to videochat.

A few seconds later her mother’s face appeared on her phone and Amy against every logical nerve in her brain burst into tears.

Quickly, so Gary nor Dan would hear her, she hurried into the bathroom and locked the door, she would rip anyone’s tongue out that even asked her if she had been crying.

“Amy, are you okay?” she asked.

Amy nodded quickly and tried to control her voice enough to talk.

“Have you gone to the doctor?”

Another nod.

“Have you told the father?”

Biting her lip to try to swallow the onset of emotion, Amy repeated her head movement.

Her mother copied the motion and looked into her eyes.

The younger Brookheimer saw the loving look on her face and she wondered if that was just something that started when you became a mom. And then she worried that she would never have that look or that maternal instinct because she was never really a touchy-feely and lovey-dovey person.

There was a long pause as mother and daughter looked at each other.

“Sweetheart, what do you want to do?”

“I don’t know!” she blurted out in a voice that was way too watery for her liking.

“Have you talked to the father?”

Amy shook her head.

There was silence and Amy looked away to the tiles on the bathroom floor to avoid the sad look her mother was giving her.

“When do you come back to D.C.?”

“A few days. We have to go to Massachusetts first…” Amy trailed off as she ran a hand through her hair.

Her mother gave her a concerned look, “sweetheart, are you taking care of yourself?”

“Yes.”

“You look tired.”

“I’m always tired and everything at work isn’t helping.” she muttered casting a nervous glance at the door.

She felt her mother studying her.

“Are you still working with Danny Egan?”

Amy felt her hands go clammy and she knew her mother was probably putting two-and-two together. The slight annoyed feeling she got every time her mother began to pry into her personal life began to flair up. Why couldn’t her mother just listen to her instead of beginning to ask questions? She was starting to regret her decision to call her mother. She had no desire to go through inquiries when she didn’t have the answers yet. She just needed someone to listen, not judge, and give her the right advice. Was that so hard?

“I know you don’t think--”

“Can we talk about this when I see you?”

Her mother smiled, “of course, but...Amy, did you just want to call to tell me you’re pregnant?”

She sighed heavily and felt her annoyance increase.

“Mom...I just...I need advice. I don’t...I want this baby, but...what if I have to do it alone?” she asked surprised that the words tumbled out as quickly and uncomfortably as they had with Dan earlier.

She clenched her hand into a fist again and focused on keeping calm.

She had already cried one times too many and the evidence was the mascara that had slithered down her face in watery black globs.

The older Brookheimer nodded slowly, “is that why you called?”

Sheepishly, Amy confirmed that was accurate with a tiny ‘yes.’

“Okay, let me ask you one thing and you don’t have to answer it now. Do you want your life to change?” Amy was silent as the words began to sink in. “Because as cliche as this sounds, when you have a baby, your entire life is going to transform. You’re not going to be Chief of Staff or Deputy Campaign Manager to a future President--”

“Mom!”

“Oh, Amy, everyone knows she’s running again!”

“But--”

“Listen, to me. A baby will be your entire life. You can’t blow off a dance recital or forget to pick the child up from daycare. You have to be committed to this choice if that’s what you choose and if you decide that’s not in the cards for you, then your father and I support you. I know that you think that all we want are grandkids, but...your sister really suffered when she got pregnant - all three times - and I don’t want you to get your hopes up with Danny--”

“I never said it was Dan’s!” Amy exclaimed.

“Fine. All I’m saying is that you need to listen to whether or not this guy wants to be involved or not and if he says ‘no,’ then you need to be ready to do this alone. Of course, your father and I will be there for you just like we are there for Sophie, but it’s going to be a lot. If Dan-- I mean, _the man_ says ‘yes,’ then you’re going to need to be prepared for being a team. So think about this: Do you want to change the life you have now? Because either way, if the guy is involved or not, your life will not be what it’s like now. Some days will be good and others will be bad, but you’ll never get the time you have now back.”

Amy was silent as she focused on the ground right behind the phone.

She hated that her mother used the word ‘team’ because every time she heard that word she thought about Dan.

“Amy?”

“I’ll call you when I get back to D.C. and then we can talk about this.” she said briskly.

The older woman gave her a sad smile.

“I love you, sweetheart.”

“I love you too, mom.”

Her mother blew her a kiss and made to hang up, but Amy stopped her.

“Can you wait to tell dad? I want to do it myself.”

“Of course, Amy. I’ll see you in a few days?”

“Yeah.”

And then Amy pressed the end button.

She sat in the bathroom for a long time thinking about what her mother said. She began to consider her life and what she was doing with it. She was dissatisfied with work, that much she knew.

Honestly, she had been dissatisfied with work since...before Buddy, so that definitely needed to change, but that was something she could focus on later. She was dissatisfied with Dan. But she was always dissatisfied with Dan, at least in the last few years. She still held that night in Nevada close to her heart and while she never wanted to give him the satisfaction of knowing that she was upset about him sleeping with Sophie...it was still something that bothered her.

She wasn’t sure if she could ever drop it.

No sane woman would drop it, unless there was some gesture and Dan’s big gesture was buying her the drinks that had helped them get into this mess.

There was just something about sending the guy you’re into pathetic pining text messages while he’s fucking your sister that you never really come back from. No matter the length of time that passed.

Before the Sophie incident, if she had gotten pregnant, she knew she could rely on Dan to sit down with her, but the Dan she was dealing with now after being a TV anchor and after embarrassing her on national TV, not to mention the assumption that she was going to abort their baby, well, she had no idea what to make out of this Dan.

Overall, she was dissatisfied with the trajectory of her life.

If she continued with the way she was going, she’d end up a Stockholm Syndrome staffer of a maybe-next-president surrounded by sadistic misogynistic who told her how fat she was every time she opened her mouth.

If she had the baby, she’d be a mother...

Would a baby really make her happy or would it make her so crazed that she slit her wrists and the child would have to grow up with an ever revolving door of 24 year old mommys thanks to Dan?

Was she ready for everything that she knew to change?

Was she okay with doing this alone?

She would forever be tied to Dan.

For the rest of her existence.

Was that okay with her?

As all of the thoughts swirled around her head, she ran a hand through her hair and tried to concentrate on how this would change her life. But instead of thinking about it as an ending, she began to think about it as a beginning. Sure, she wasn’t exactly mother material, but maybe...maybe this was something she wanted.

When Dan had mentioned abortion, she had felt a somersault occur in her stomach and well, the thought hadn’t exactly appealed to her.

Was that a sign?

Looking down at her stomach, she rubbed a hand absentmindedly against it.

She needed to think about some things before she made her final decision and she didn’t want Dan or Selina or anyone else influencing her. After she came to the conclusion that she was leaning toward having the baby, at least for today, she took a shower and got ready to go to bed.

As she read a book propped up against the headboard of the bed and cuddled under the covers, there was a knock on the door.

Her stomach dropped knowing without the door needing to be opened that it was Dan. Gary wouldn’t even think about knocking on her door this late, but also when she stopped at the vending machine for some chips, she saw him going into Selina’s room.

She glanced nervously at the door and contemplated just not saying anything and hoping he would go away. She wasn’t really in the mood to deal with him, especially after talking to her mom. She had wanted to make her decision without any influences and she knew that if she spoke to Dan alone some more words could - would - fall out of her mouth or he would say something about abortion and she just didn’t have the capacity to deal with him right now.

Not after the emotional talk she had, had early.

And not after talking to her mom.

Definitely not after she had decided that she was 70 percent sure she wanted this baby.

But also, she was a bit nervous that he was coming to talk to her about other things. Like, maybe he had heard her on the phone earlier or maybe he was coming for some night time...fun?

Fuck.

She couldn’t handle this right now.

She had way too many things on her mind.

“Ames? Can I talk to you?” Dan asked.

Her stomach dropped to her toes and she scurried into the bathroom because she needed a place to hide and it was the first place she thought of. She knew she was being childish; she really knew this, but she couldn’t help it. She wasn’t ready to talk to him and if he had heard her conversation, then she definitely didn’t want to talk to him.

She turned on the shower and pretended that she was winding down for the night. Between the water hitting the tiles and the closed door, she couldn’t even hear him knocking. Breathing a sigh of relief, she waited a few more minutes before shutting the water off and making her way into the bedroom.

“Were you really just in the shower?” Dan asked.

Amy jumped, let out a yelp, and put a hand to her chest to stop her heart from pounding out of her body.

Dan was leaning against the wall next to the adjoining doors and smirking at her.

“What the shit?” she snarled.

“I was knocking on the door.”

“And that makes you think you can come into my room?” she asked in anger.

Dan chuckled, “well no, but it’s not like I haven’t seen it before.”

He gave her a lecherous look over and she tried to repress the shiver that went up and down her spine.

“Fuck off, Dan. It was one time.”

“Three actually.”

“What do you want?” She asked tugging her shorts down a bit lower to cover up more when she saw Dan’s gaze lingering on her legs.

“I wanted to tell you to keep the door--”

“As if I want to walk in on you or Gary getting naked. Just leave, I have...I’m tired.” she said looking anywhere but at him.

With the combination of her thoughts and feelings becoming word vomit that spewed all over Dan and lingered in the room like old cat piss in carpeting and then having to talk to her mother about the pregnancy, she was not interested in discussing her emotions anymore or really talking about anything that had to do with her at all.

If Dan had come in here to talk to her about work, then maybe she’d be much more interested in having a conversation, but as of right now, she was done. She just wanted to go to bed.

“That’s not--”

“Then what? Didn’t we already have enough awkwardness earlier?”

Dan narrowed his eyes at her in curiosity, “was that awkward for you?”

Amy crossed her arms across her chest and looked over at the door behind him that was slightly ajar.

“Of course, it was.”

Dan blinked, “I know you don’t like talking about feelings--”

She snorted.

“But you’re the one that seems bent on talking to me about them. I told you what I thought. The baby should be sent to the 7/11 dumpster in the sky. We are not parental material. We’ve never been parental material and we never will be. You know I’ve never wanted to be a father and I know you’ve never wanted to be a mother.” He said so casually that she felt her stomach drop at how easily he was dismissing the idea of them becoming a parents.

Or maybe he was just dismissing them becoming parents together.

She really wasn’t sure with him anymore.

At that moment, she knew without a doubt she’d end up raising this baby by herself.

Was she ready for that?

To hide her disgust and discomfort, she rolled her eyes so hard she thought they would stay that way.

“Fuck you, Dan. I thought I was doing the decent thing of telling you, but as always, you prove me fucking wrong. I want this baby. I wanted it when I told you the first time and I still want it now.” She said with so much determination she realized that she was actually telling the truth.

Scratch that 70 percent of wanting the kid and increasing it to 80.

He stared at her in horror, “you want the baby now? Since fucking when? Before it was just you telling me that you were thinking about...about having it and now you actually want it? Are you done changing your mind, now?”

“Yes, now I want it.” she said surprising herself even more by how vehemently she meant it.

“You want it?” he repeated dumbfounded.

She would’ve found the look on his face funny if the topic of conversation wasn’t so awful. He looked like she had just told him that she had gotten Jonah elected President and she was running off to build artistic statues at Burning Man.

“Yeah, I-I do.” she stuttered and then straightened her spine to look him dead in the eye.

“And like I said before--”

“Why?” he interrupted.

“What?”

“Why do you want the kid?”

“Why not?”

“Because you’d make a horrible parent.”

She guffawed darkly and moved to the hotel door to open it a bit more to show him that she wanted him to leave. “I think you need to leave.”

“I didn’t mean - Jesus, fuck, Ames. I didn’t--I mean, you’d be a great parent. I’d be awful.”

“Which is why you won’t be involved.”

“Wait - what?”

“I just said you won’t be involved.”

She watched as Dan’s face hardened and his eyes turned dark.

“You’re making this decision for me?”

“You made the decision already. You told me to get an abortion.”

“Yeah because it’s stupid and ridiculous that you’d even want a child!”

“Why? Why is that stupid?”

“Because it’s not you!”

“And you know me so well, now? We have barely been around each other in two years!”

“And whose fault is that?” he snarled.

Amy let out a hollow laugh and opened the door to their adjoining rooms even more.

“I’d like you to leave.” she repeated.

“Why? We’re having the fucking conversation that you wanted to have so badly.”

“Because I’m making the decision for you. I don’t want you in this child’s life.”

“You can’t choose--”

“Yeah, I can. And I just did. Now leave.”

Dan didn’t move and kept his gaze focused directly on her.

“Why are you doing this?”

“Because it’s my life and my body, asshole.”

He advanced toward her and she hated how he towered over her when she was barefoot.

“You’re not going to be happy.”

“I’m already not happy.”

“Then why not just get an abortion? Everything can go back to how it was before.”

“Because I’m ready for my life to change.” She said quietly.

He stared at her and she watched humorlessly as he opened and shut his mouth in confusion. She wanted to laugh, but then there was a knock on his hotel room and for some reason she knew that it wasn’t Gary forgetting his key. She watched as he visibly paled and she shook her head slowly. She knew him well enough to know it was probably some piece of ass.

If it was anything to go by, she’d guess it was the woman he had been flirting with earlier.

“Why did you really come in here, Dan?”

She watched as his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down and she motioned for him to move back to his room.

“This isn’t over.” he said with a sharp note of displeasure in his voice.

She chuckled darkly, “yeah. I think it is. Make sure to fuck her really well so she actually knows what a real orgasm feels like.”

And with that, she shut the door in his face.

It was the first time she felt like herself in what seemed to be years.

* * *

 

Closing the door of her hotel the next morning, Amy tiredly dragged her suitcase down the hallway to the elevator. She had spent most of the night making a pro and con list to determine if was she was ready for her life to change.

On the one hand, she was ready for something different. But on the other, she wasn’t sure if a baby was the answer she needed. It wasn’t like a dog that you could buy and then give back. If she was going to have a baby, she needed to be ready. So after making pro and con lists, she began to surf the net to figure out what being a single mother was like.

Sure, she saw her sister, but she needed another prospective and fuck did she find it. She found cyber single mother groups, blogs, articles, statistics, and everything in between.

One thing that she found that really grabbed her attention was a D.C. single mothers group on MeetUp. While she hated meeting new people, especially when small talk was involved, the group looked very intriguing and she was tempted to message the group leader to learn more. One thing she was sure of was that if all of those moronic bloggers who wrote about being a single mother and if her sister could pull off being a single mother, she could too.

“Ames, hey, wait up!”

Amy halted halfway down the hall and glanced behind her to find Dan walking quickly to catch up with her. She scowled and began to roll toward the elevator. Another reason she was up most of the night: Dan.

She knew when she heard a woman’s voice before she could close the door to their adjoining rooms that she had been right in accessing Dan’s late night booty call. What she hadn’t banked on was the clenching in her stomach at the thought of him with another woman. She had known Dan for a very long time, so she had no right in thinking that a baby would change him.

In fact, she knew that the only thing that would change Dan was probably finding a grey hair or being rejected by some random woman. For the most part, even though she knew Dan - or at least how he had been two years ago - she had hoped maybe he’d get his act together, but in no way did she seriously think he’d become father of the year. He was still Dan Egan Resident Douchebag and she knew that was all he’d ever be.

The one thing that had changed was that he seemed to be on a mission to fuck as many woman as possible and she didn’t like how that was making her feel. She wasn’t an idiot to think that Dan would want to settle down with her, but a small part - a tinier than tiny part - had thought that maybe…

And that tiny bit of hope kept popping up at the most inopportune times. Just like how her common sense seemed to be wavering more so than it should.

“Ames!” he called out again as she reached the elevator.

“I’m in a hurry.” she said shortly.

“You act as if we’re not going to the same place.” he said saddling up to her.

She made a hmph sound and looked down at her phone.

He began to fidget beside her and she wondered what unsurprising and unsettling thing was going to come out of his mouth.

“I don’t want to talk about.” she said when he continued to look at her nervously. She pressed the button to go down in the elevator again.

“I just think that you’re underestimating the situation.” he blurted out.

“Listen, Dan, I already told you I don’t want anything from you.”

“Amy, do you know what I just did last night?” he said and then paused for a nanosecond, so she knew he was being rhetorical, “I fucked Mike’s boss. And I liked it and I don’t want to give that up because you decided out of fucking nowhere that you want to becoming Miss Suzy Homemaker. I’m verbally telling you that I don’t want to be a father and you seem--”

“I’m sorry, Dan, if my desire to be an adult is getting in the way of you sticking your dick in everything. How about the next time you want to fuck someone stick your pencil sized penis into an outlet. I told you already that I don’t want your help. I take back wanting the kid to even know you’re the father. I’ll tell everyone it’s a sperm donor.” she snipped still staring down at her phone.

“An abortion--”

“I told you I don’t want--”

“We can go dutch. I’ll venmo you the money.” he said and she was amused to hear that he sounded almost a little desperate.

“No! I told you that’s not what I want to do.”

“Do you get how tiring a kid will be? What are you going to do when we have to stay late or--”

“Get a nanny.”

“And what about when the kid looks just like me?”

Amy thanked God when the elevator doors opened. She pushed past Dan and went into the elevator. She tried pressing the door to close before he could get in, but he was too quick.

“And you’re going to get large, Amy. I mean whale sized.” he said moving a hand around the air in front of her stomach.

“You can’t bully me into an abortion.” she said flatly trying to ignore the uncomfortable feeling at the thought of getting fat.

She wanted this baby and she was sticking to it. No matter what Dan was trying to convince her of. She held onto that small amount of hope she had and the conversation with her mother to keep her strong.

She knew her parents would support her and that’s really all she needed right now. It helped that she had read about other single women’s fucked up stories to prove that if crackheaded 14 year olds and army wives with dead husbands who got shot in Iraq could do it, then so could she.

Fuck Dan.

She had a good job, money, and her parents to help her.

She didn’t need a guy, but maybe down the line, it would be nice to find someone who loved her...baby steps, Brookheimer, baby steps she told herself.

“Jesus, I’m not bullying you into an abortion.”

“It sure sounds like you are.”

“I’m just trying to make you see that a baby isn’t what either of us needs. If Selina--”

“Fuck Selina. This is what I want to do. If you don’t like it, then that sounds like a personal problem.”

“I just don’t think you’re thinking clearly. I just spent the night fucking Mike’s boss. Does that sound like daddy material? And I came on her--”

”I heard you the first time about fucking Mike’s boss. Continue fucking her. Go fuck whomever you want. Hell, go fuck my sister or Selina or maybe a second cousin I have never met. I’d tell you to fuck my OBGYN too, but she’s married with kids of her own, so… maybe you could fuck my dentist. She might be a bit old for you, but she’s desperate. Fuck whomever because I’m not changing my mind. This is my decision and if you don’t like it then you can fuck off.” she said feeling rage course through her body.

“You know, if this was Buddy’s kid you’d be aborting it as quickly as Gary freaking out over finding the right lipstick shade when Selina calls.” She ignored him as the door of the elevator opened and they arrived in the lobby.

“You’re making a mistake.” he hissed grabbing her arm to stop her from getting off.

She yanked her arm from his grip and dragged her suitcase behind her continuing to ignore him. “Ames, I’ll pay for the whole thing.” he yelled after her.

She continued to pretend he didn’t exist - or at least try - and headed to the lobby chairs to sit with Kent and Ben who were both staring at their phones. She noticed Dan didn’t follow her and instead went to reception to flirt with the woman on duty.

She rolled her eyes and ignored the churning in her stomach at watching him flirt with yet another woman in front of her.

* * *

 

A few days after Selina had announced her run for presidency, they were sitting on the airplane on their way from Massachusetts to D.C. when Dan tugged on her elbow.

“Can we talk?” he asked gesturing to the back of the plane.

Amy sighed because she didn’t have the energy to deal with whatever hissy fit Dan was going to throw, but he had been dutiful and hadn’t bothered her about getting an abortion since the hotel, so she was a bit more at ease than she should be around him.

Of course, he could always have fluffed her to prepare to fuck her, but she was going to try to remain hopeful

“Fine.” she said.

They moved to disappear to the back of the plane, but Kent and Ben stopped them.

“Before you two start yelling at each other, take a look at these numbers.” Kent said shoving some data sheets into Amy’s hands.

“What’s this?” Dan asked.

“Numbers for Jonah.”

“People are actually liking Jonah, even after that shitshow of an interview? Who wants a President that commits incest?” Dan asked in surprised.

“Yeah, it seems that when the Wizard presented Jonah with a family, his popularity increased faster than my heart rate after watching a PG-13 sex scene.” Ben said chuckling.

Amy could feel Dan’s eyes resting on her, “really?”

She bit her lip and focused on Ben.

“But it could be a mistake, right?”

“Pretty sure it’s the family. It makes him look more wholesome and approachable. A family always equals a warmer aura, if you will.” Kent said monotonously and then waved his hands in a circle to get his point across.

“So Jonah goes and gets himself a family and now he’s the fucking dad from The Brady Bunch?” Dan asked slowly.

Amy glanced at him and tried to ignore the sinking feeling in her gut, but she had a bad feeling about where Dan’s questioning was going.

“Seems so.” Kent said.

“Interesting.”

Dan was quiet as he looked over the numbers and Amy tried to take in the information, but her mind was already on replay for the worst case scenarios as the data was digested.

“I’m still pulling data to see how his presence was taken by the people after the interview. I’ll keep you in the know.” Kent said turning away and leaving Ben with Amy and Dan.

“I can’t believe America would want Jonah as President, but I guess the numbers don’t lie. Families always make people soft, which is weird because I fucking hate my family.” Ben said shrugging and sipping from his mug with a lingering look on the two of them.

As he left, Amy felt a sinking sensation in her stomach and she didn’t even have to look at Dan to know that the gears in his head were turning.

“I should get to work.” she said after a few minutes.

“Wait.” he said grabbing her arm.

“Whatever you’re thinking, don’t. I’m not letting you use a child to progress your career or--”

“We should get dinner.” he blurted out.

“What?”

“Dinner. Us.”

“Why? You don’t want to be involved. There’s nothing else that needs to be said.”

“Yes, there is.” he took a deep breath and looked her right in the eye, “I’m not ready to be a dad, but--"

“Dan. I’m going to stop you right the fuck there. If this is another ploy to get me to make an appointment for an abortion, then you can fuck off. I already told you what I want.”

“I know that, but you wanted to talk about it and I think we should. I mean, we’d be tied together for the rest of our lives and you wouldn’t be able to disappear into whatever corncob fucking state you want to and--” he stopped talking suddenly and she watched as his face got a bit brighter as some idea began to take form in his brain and beat him over the head with it.

“And what?” she snapped when he didn’t immediately begin to speak.

“And I mean, we’d be a family. At least the definition of one.” he said with attempted casually.

The sinking sensation from earlier came back full force and she knew what he was thinking. She wasn’t sure how to respond, so instead, she went back to her seat on the airplane and decided to just ignore him because she wasn’t sure what else to do. She hadn’t ever anticipated Dan being on board with the baby and now it seemed that he wanted to do what he did best i.e. use the kid for his own personal gain.

Thankfully, when Dan came to bother her about leaving in the middle of their conversation, Selina began to talk to them and they had to put the conversation on the back burner for the rest of the flight. But she could clearly feel Dan’s eyes on her and she knew that the next five months were going to be very long - hell, the next 18 years were going to feel never ending, especially if Dan decided he wanted to be involved.

She decided that he was probably just having some sort of weird reaction toward Kent’s polling numbers about Jonah and by this time tomorrow he’ll realize that being a dad would be the worst thing in the world.

After all, even if he was going to try to get her to see that he was being serious she’d never be able to shake the fact he had tried to bully her into an abortion. Just like sleeping with her sister, some things Dan did couldn’t ever be forgotten. Forgiven, maybe with a lot of graveling, but forgotten was something she’d never let go.

She made a promise to herself just then that if Dan really did want to be in her and the kid’s life, then he’d need to prove it because while he had morphed into the worst possible version of himself, that didn’t mean she didn’t know him inside and out.

And one thing she did know was that Dan never made things easy, especially when it came to them.


End file.
